Archive for October, 2010

This little dude was 90% dead when I got home last night. It was awful. But it does have a happy ending. In between running some errands, checking in on my sick mom, pick up at cross country, pick up at wrestling, drop off at soccer (now you see why blogging has taken a back seat) I dashed home to let some of the children off the hook. You know, let them hang out at home instead of continuing the madness. I made a phone call, opened up doors to the backyard so those that were in come leave and those that were out could come in and I noticed that a dog was missing. Search the house, call his name, check the garage, check the pantry (it’s happened), turned on every light in the backyard, checked the front yard. No Floyd.

Just as I was starting to get concerned he’d escaped and been hit by a car or picked up by the pound the corner of my eye caught our fountain by the sunroom door. Something was swirling very quickly in it and then I realized I could see the very tip of his nose reach up over the surface and disappear again. It was AWFUL.

I pulled him out immediately (obviously), asked for some towels from the wide-eyed child staring at the entire situation and began to check if he was breathing. Just barely. I rubbed his abdomen vigorously, he coughed and breathing was restored except for an awful grunting that came with every breath. He was rigid. Frozen you might say. His little peepers did not look good; vacant and non-reactive to his name.

I ran him upstairs, dried him to where he wasn’t drenched anymore, wrapped him in down comforters and began to blow the hair dryer on his abdomen so he would get his core temperature UP. He just shivered violently and continued to grunt with every breath. The grunts went away after about 15 minutes. At the point I said his name and his little peepers? They were filled with Floyd again. He turned them in my direction and I figured we would be OK. He couldn’t walk and I didn’t know if he had stroked out or just shut down from the cold so we had to wait to assess long-term damage.

The shivering slowed and then finally stopped after about 90 minutes. I had to leave real quick to pick up from soccer but when I returned and he heard my voice, he immediately tried to get up and I then I breathed normally for the first time in 90 minutes. 🙂 Tail wagging, still shivering off and on but able to walk and able to (sort of) jump. He worked out the jumping in the middle of the night as he went on and off the bed several times.